LADEE launched from Wallops is in moon orbit, 'talking' via lasers

In early September, a lunar explorer rocketed from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island to begin a science mission to the moon.

When the federal government shut down on Oct. 1, news about LADEE — or NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer — went dark, too.

It was during that 16-day partial shutdown that LADEE successfully performed a crucial "nail-biter" of a maneuver to achieve lunar orbit, said NASA. Failure could have made it very difficult for the explorer to perform its mission.

Then this week NASA announced LADEE made history by using a pulsed laser beam for the first time to send data 239,000 miles between the moon and Earth, rather than radio waves.

NASA official Badri Younes in Washington called the Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration, or LLCD, "the first step in our roadmap toward building the next generation of space communication capability."

Radio frequency has long been the standard for communicating in space, but it's pushing the limit for data capacity. Lasers offer greater speed and capabilities, including better image resolution and 3-D video transmission from deep space.

"The goal of LLCD is to validate and build confidence in this technology so that future missions will consider using it," said NASA's Don Cornwell at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

The LADEE launch on Sept. 6 marked the first time a rocket from Wallops left Earth's orbit. The flight facility on the Eastern Shore has been launching rockets since 1945 to study the planet's weather and atmosphere and place satellites into orbit, but more recently has been pushing to expand its launch portfolio. Later this year, MARS is expected to begin boosting commercial cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station.

LADEE's larger mission is its science phase — studying the ultra-thin atmosphere and lofted dust of the moon while it's still in a pristine state. NASA hopes the explorer will also solve the mystery of a strange glow detected on the lunar horizon decades ago by several Apollo astronauts.

The science measurement phase is expected to last 100 days and begin in mid-November when LADEE repositions to low lunar orbit, between 12 and 93 miles above the moon's surface.